T 4:00 – 6:30 p.m., Anderson Hall, Room 153
This seminar investigates how buildings "prepare air" for human inhabitation. As breathing beings, humans must be environed by and contained within favorable atmospheric conditions. A building's environmental task can then be thought as an effort towards a small surrounding of favorable air conditions. In contemporary practice, the tecnics of architecture that define and manage these conditions are (1) a membrane or enclosure which serves to delineate environments, and (2) mechanical technologies which act upon the qualities of the atmosphere itself. While, together these two forms of environmental management allow buildings to "prepare air" for human habitation, architectural drawing today evinces a rupture between the design of material tectonics and the mechanics of climatization. Rather, another culture of builders-comprised of plumbers, subcontractors, and consulting engineers-constructs comfort within buildings through the design of interior, man-made weathers. By considering both formal and performative concerns, the seminar examines theoretical texts and practical manuals in conversation with architectural case studies and their drawings to better understand the 'interior' environment.